George Washington HS: Abstinence or Death.

While it was funny in the Mean Girls movie, it’s incredibly sad that these sort of speeches are actually given in High Schools in the US.

Today, I read an article about a girl named Katelyn Campbell. If you’ve heard of her, you’ll know what I’m going to talk about. If you don’t.. well.. prepare to be shocked.

A couple of weeks ago, the George Washington High School hosted an abstinence-only ‘sex-ed’ assembly. Katelyn Campbell apparently refused to attend this assembly where guest speaker Pam Stenzel was telling scared students horrific, inaccurate tails. Among other things she told them that condoms aren’t safe, that any form of sexual contact would lead to STIs and would make women infertile. Women who take birth control, she says, are ten times more likely to contract a disease or end up sterile of dead. If that’s not bad enough she also attacks the parents of these children by saying that ‘if your mother gives you birth control, she probably hates you.’ I just looked on youtube and Stelzer does have a lot of videos on there in which she talks about abstinence. For an example click here. I. am. Horrified.

If you have sex, out side of one permanent monogamous, and monogamy does not mean one at a time, that means one partner that has only been with you. If you have sex outside of that context, you will pay. No one has ever had more than one partner and not paid.

Not accepting this blatant form of psychological abuse by the school, Katelyn wrote to the media, informing them of this ridiculous event. After she did this, she was called into principal Aulenbacher’s office who told her that he was ‘disappointed in her’. He berated her until she was very upset and crying. Katelyn tells the media that he threatened to call Wellesley College, where she had recently been accepted to, and tell them about what she did. He said that he would tell them that she had a ‘bad character’ and that she was ‘a backstabber’. Apparently he also has teachers and students afraid of speaking up because of fear of retaliation.

Meanwhile Aulenbacher said to the media that he does not think that anything that the guest speaker Stenzel said in the assembly was inappropriate. If anything it was ‘uncomfortable’ but ‘talking about sex with teenagers is always uncomfortable.’ He also made a point of reaffirming the message that the assembly was trying to push the students to believing. ‘The only way to guarantee safety is abstinence.’

Fortunately, an injunction has been filed to keep Aulenbacher from retaliating against Katelyn. After all.. there is such a thing as free speech.

Also, I’m glad to say that the Admissions officers of Wellesley are not intimidated by this bogus principle:

Yea, no of course. Didn’t mean to imply that these speeches are given everywhere or even that they’re common. Over here it’s pretty standard that in 8th grade we get the awkward banana + condom lesson in biology class.

But still, I think a school could choose to support abstinence. It’s the blatant wrong information that makes this so wrong don’t understand how this woman can keep preaching those things.

No, I agree. I didn’t think that you were implying that these speeches were every where. I got it in 8th grade health class form the teacher who also taught gym. I can’t believe that a school would have someone giving a speech like that…..gives the American education system an even worse name.

Look, I believe not only that abstinence is the safest way to protect yourself against STIs and unwanted pregnancy, but also that abstinence until marriage is morally right. I accept that some will disagree with me on the latter. That’s okay. We’re each entitled to our opinions. And abstinence is hard. Most of us are going to/have slipped up.

But to actually lie to kids, to try to scare and intimidate them, that’s simply unacceptable. In South Africa the biggest challenge in sex-ed is dealing with all the myths surrounding STIs and contraceptives, and here this woman in a first-world country is teaching children the exact opposite of the truth, with the support of a highly qualified education professional.

I say well done, Katelyn, for speaking out and for refusing to be intimidated. If more of us were like that our world would be a very different place.

Like you said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I have absolutely no problem with abstinence, as long as it’s done for the right reasons. Which is that it is something that you want and think is important. Besides the fact that she’s blatantly lying to these kids, she’s also giving them, what I think is, a warped view of why someone should abstain.

I watched some of her videos (with disgust, I tell you) and she tells them that if they are with more than one person in their life they are basically worthless, decease ridden sluts who have nothing to offer. Among others, she uses the metaphor of a piece of tape that you stick on your partner’s skin. The first time it sticks fine, but then the second and the third time it sticks less and less until you have this useless bit of tape that only has filth stuck to it.

But what’s horrible, in my opinion, about this is that not every boy and girl in that room listening to her has the strength that Katelyn has. What about the girls and boys who were already sexually active and walk out of there with their self-image shot? Or what about the boys and girls who are so influenced by this speech that they tell themselves to stay in their unhappy or even abusive relationship because of what this woman has told them. It’s so harmful.

I sincerely hope that this woman is banned from speaking at schools after this incident. Although, probably not as she has dvds out and does regular interviews with talk shows. *sigh..*